


Like Salt in Your Wounds (Breathing Water Remix)

by Latia



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Drowning, Gen, M/M, Ouroboros Mix Lightning Round
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-28 15:35:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/309385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Latia/pseuds/Latia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>and then i heard this voice<br/>like someone whispering in my ear</p><p>"wake up, number thirty seven"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Salt in Your Wounds (Breathing Water Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vulturer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vulturer/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Licking at Wounds](https://archiveofourown.org/works/264361) by [vulturer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vulturer/pseuds/vulturer). 



> Vulturer is not only a talented writer but a very nice person who rec'd one of my fics, so I was more than happy to try and remix her fic Licking at Wounds! I decided to go for a good old fashioned perspective flip, since I've always been intrigued by Sollux and his bifurcated perception of things, and how that would affect his experience of a "Whisper."
> 
> This was highly inspired by the song Breathing Water by Inhale, and I suggest you listen to it as you read! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUJ2S0qC6MU

What scares him most isn’t her shifting from her graceful stroke into a dead stop, from thirty to below zero in two seconds flat. What scares him most isn’t her bobbing in the waves as stiff as stone, drifting almost thoughtlessly, if she’s suddenly forgotten how to move her limbs. Even when the slightest ripple passes through the water, combining with the wave halfway to the shore to produce a bifurcated wave to wash over the sand, what scares his most isn’t even when she turns to him with the most horrified eyes.

“Oh my god.”

What scares him most is that she forgot the pun.

“FF?” Sollux calls. The rock he sits on is on is only a few metres from where she bobs, but she might as well be worlds away. After a moment he makes to slip into the water. “Fef, what’s the mat--?”

“NO!” she suddenly shouts, snapping her head towards him. Sollux flinches and scoots back. “No, whatever you do, stay OUT of the water. Do not…”  She presses a hand to her forehead. “Oh cod, oh cod oh— _god_ , I screwed up, I really screwed up…”

“Fef, Fef--.” Ugh he can’t do anything from up here. With resolution he gives her a gentle blue tinged bump towards him. “Fef, easy, take a breath…” Damn it all, she’s supposed to be the level headed one, the one calming _him_ down, he has ( _never had a reason to worry you selfish bastard, all take no give_ ) almost no experience at this.

Instinctively he gently ( _clumsily)_ brushes her bangs from her slick skin, and Feferi’s eyes snap to his, wide and frightened. “Okay….okay, I’m…” She swallows, shoulders slack. “I’m sorry, I just…”

She says, “it’s my fault.”

And she says, “she’s hungry.”

And she says, “she’s calling me.”

His breath catches.

He swallows.

And he says, “alright.”

“Get to her,” he says, “and quiet her down.”

“I know, I know _that_ _,”_ she mumbles, half annoyed and  half chastised, sweeping her hand over her face. “I just…”

“You just need to calm her down,” he says with more than a little ( _rudeness)_ urgency. “You need to go.”  And that definitely makes her flinch ( _way to go fuckhead_ ), so he softens his tone. “Hey.” He leans forward to give her a forehead _bunp. “_ Don’t sweat it, FF. Everyfin’s gonna be alright.”

That actually makes her giggle ( _probably because of how fucking bad it was)_ and the knot in his stomach loosens the slightest bit. “Right.” She rolls her shoulders back with a good imitation of confidence. “I’ll be right back.” Her smile falters a bit. “Just…wait for me. Don’t get in the water, that’s where her voice is strongest. And…you probably shouldn’t try levitating yourself back to shore or anything, in case she whispers and…just in case.” She ends quickly.

“Just in case.” He nods. “Go.”

The last thing he sees of her is her smile wobbling at the corners, as if she wants to say something. But she sinks

(or is she swallowed?)

into the water

 

 

and he’s alone.

 

 

He closes his eyes, he taps his fingers against the stone, he does everything but brace for the inevitable. The hiss of seafoam against the shore is startlingly, unnaturally loud. There is a low, low throbbing in his ears, like the buzz of bees miles and miles away.

He counts the seconds with each collision of water on sand.  Two over two is one. Four over two is two. Six over two ( _it’s starting)_ is three. Eight over ( _for the love of god Fef hurry UP_ ) is two—no, he’s got it wrong, he got it backwards—

God, his _head_.

It starts in the base of his skull, a pressure, an invisible hand clenching, clenching the top of his spine. His teeth, his mouth is tingling, like he chowed down on a plateful of aluminum.  He needs to fi nd them, every o n e, and him—fuck, HE’s in the water, did she think of that? He needs to, he needs two, she needs to shut UP, god it’s so fucking LOUD, bass two high (two puns in one she’d be ((no you dumb fuck you’re losing)) proud of him) maybe he’ll just poke his head down there, YO GL'BGOLYB PUT A LID ON IT—

No fuck of course he can’t (or won’t ((CAN’T you dumb shit)) you coward) He grits his teeth, he leans forward (too far((two far)) clasping his temples (TOO FAR) desperately as if he can wring the pain out (you can’t you stupid shit you’re about to

 

f

a

l

l

 

and  he

 

b                             e             a                              s

r                                              k

 

the surface

and the surface

breaks

 

 

him

 

 

 

he is everywhere every WHERE at once,  a  double you and you and you and him and her and everyone, for every troll feeling the red hot pain in their skull he is there, a pale blue moon to their agonizing sun

 

(“easy, take a breath”)

 

his mind  moves forward with the sound, a wave that won’t waver even as it (he) hits every unsuspecting brain, and his head is a computer pulling their thoughts through a filter

breaking them into ones and zeroes ones and (011011100011000001110100001000000111100101100101011101000010000001110011001100

000110110001101100011101010111100000100000011001000011000001101110001001110111010000100000011

000100110010100100000011000010110011001110010011000010110100101100100)

zer0s zer0ing into their thoughts

 

(you’re sinking)

he hears the screams they can’t force out of their throats, every word they said and never could say, every thought they fought their entire lives every wonder of _is this right? should I, could I?_ it’s as if the Whisper (“ _Whisper_ ”) is flipping everyone’s minds around exposing the pale eyeless things they would never unearth

and now they two are

(sinking)

((breathe!))

(sinking)

((for him! for them!!)

(si                      nk            ing)

 

0110111breathe you1011010000110110101111001011001s1i1n0k1i1n0g11110110010

0011010idiot!01001001110110110101 00111011 he can’t make sense of 011110110100 10110111001100111

011101000110111101100100011010010110010101 (it feels) 1101110110100001100001011go1010001

00100101010011011101

0001101od?0000110000101110100011011010110breathe1110TZ11101000110100001100101breathe0111001001101000011001KK0101101100011100000110110101

10010101110011011just let go101010110011001100110011001010111001001100101011100go100110100001

100101011011000111000001101101011001010111010 0011s01000011s01001011100110110100101110s0110111s0100011010000110s0101011001010110111

(sol)

(sol!!)

001100100011001110110111101101111011001000111001001101001011001000110010001100001011011100110001101100101

(is the pressure lessening?)

01000100001011010010110100111110010011100110010101110000011001010111010001100001001000000111011101101000011001

0101110010011001010010000001101001011100110010000001110011011010000110010100100000010010010010

000001101110011001010110010101100100001000000111010001101111

(far away they ascend)

 

01101111011010000010000001100111011011110110010000100000011101110110100001100101011100100110010100100000011010010111001100100

(they breach)

00001101000011001010011111100100000011010010010000001101000011000010111011001100101001000000111010001101111001000000111010001

(the beach)

100101011011000110110000100000011010000110100101101101

(hands desperate and studded with too big rings hammer at his chest)

011011100110111100100000011001110110111101100100011001000110000101101101011011010110100101110100001000000110100101110100

0010000001100010011100100110010101100001011101000110100000100000011100110110111101101100

(again again again and he)

011101110110000101101011011001010010000001110101011100000010000001101001001000000110111001100101011001010110

01000010000001110100011011110010000001110100011001010110110001101100001000000111100101101111011101010010000001101001

“ I love you”

and

he

 

 b  r  e   a  t   h  e  s

 

It’s not that simple of course, _he_ has to assist him in thumping all the excess liquid out, giving him a second wind of breakfast and blood. But eventually he breathes on his own, and he slowly _his_ laughs travel to him. He feels the slightly rubbery fingers running over his skin, through his hair, around his horns as if anointing him.

Sollux opens his eyes the slightest crack, and he sees Eridan hovering over him with the most pitiful look of relief. He is dripping with water and what’s probably his own sweat and tears. He’s simultaneously the most hilarious, most wonderful thing Sollux has ever seen. He’ll be happy to inform him of that later—

But at the moment, Eridan leans forward and just gently, gently touches his throat, as if just to feel him living, and living, and _not stop living_. And if Sollux focuses hard enough, he can feel Eridan’s pulse in his palm.

 

 

 

 

Pulse against pulse. Together, they breathe.

 


End file.
